on our broadcast tonight, the end of an era on the supreme court. with the departure of the oldest justice, a new fight looms over a replacement. at the mine disaster in west virginia, as families begin burying the lost, the rescue effort enters a desperate stage. adoption scandal. why would an american parent send a russian boy back home all alone? and what now for other american whose want to adopt? making a difference by giving people exactly what they need. also tonight, guess who may be engaged again? "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

good evening. former president gerald ford once said it would be fine with him if his entire presidency was judged only by the man he put on the supreme court. president ford had just one chance to name one justice and he chose john paul stevens of chicago. a recent poll showed only about 1% of americans knew his name, but his rulings as a justice affected every american in this country. today justice john paul stevens, the oldest member of the court, the most senior justice, the leading liberal announced he's leaving the bench. president obama now gets to appoint his second justice, but tonight when you read what the other eight justices are saying, you understand they're losing a close and valued friend on the bench. we begin our coverage here tonight with our justice correspondent pete williams. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening to you on a windy friday. about the only surprise is the

timing of this announcement, 11 days before his 90th birthday. justice stevens has been signaling for weeks that this term of the court would probably be his last. john paul stevens will leave the supreme court after nearly 34 1/2 years. the third longest service in the court's history. in a one-sentence letter addressed, "my dear mr. president," stevens will step down at the end of the current term in late june. that will allow time to have his successor in place in early october when the new term begins. >> he has applied the constitution and the laws of the land with fidelity and restraint. he will soon turn 90 this month, but he leaves his position at the top of his game. >> reporter: the court's only gerald ford nominee, stevens arrived in 1975 as a moderate conservative but became the anchor of the court's liberal wing. the choice of his replacement by a democratic president will probably not change his until

logical make-up. he insisted the court shifted, not him. >> i don't think i have changed. i consider myself quite conservative. >> reporter: he voted to recognize legal rights for guantanamo detainees. because justice stevens was able to attract swing votes, his departure may make a difference in close cases. >> john paul stevens through his persuasion and relationship and powers as senior justice is able to pull someone like justice kennedy to the left. we may lose that to the left on the supreme court. >> reporter: he is the current court's only protestant, six are catholic, and two are jewish, a potential consideration for obama. it's clear he's not leaving now because he has to. justice stevens has remained remarkably fit, even throwing out the first pitch for his beloved chicago cubs as an 85-year-old right-hander. >> extraordinary to me he was able to work at this level and

at the absolute top through all the way up to age 90. it's just remarkable. >> reporter: friends say justice stevens may have decided to leave now because the longer he waits, the harder it will be to nominate and confirm a successor who would vote on cases the way he has. >> a personal question. for those who cover the court and guys like you and me who love this stuff offcamera as a hobby/obsession, what's it going to be like to show up at the court without the giannone as the short hand jps? >> reporter: it will be unfamiliar to me. he's been here a lot longer than i have or indeed many of the reporters who covered the supreme court. he went through such a long period about a decade, where there were no changes on the supreme court. since the death of william rehnquist, retirement of sandra day o'connor, david souter, justice stevens, we are back in the his torque cal pattern where you have change on the supreme court once every year or two. his departure will clearly be in a different category. >> pete williams who covered the court for us for many years. thanks for your reporting

tonight. as pete just pointed out, justice stevens has been telegraphing this move for weeks now, which means the obama white house has had time to start thinking about a successor, narrowing down the list, perhaps. our white house correspondent savannah guthrie with us tonight with more on that angle. >> reporter: good evening to you, brian. the president was on air force one when justice stevens' letter arrived here at the white house. the white house council actually called him in the air to tell him about it. the president said today he will move quickly to name a replacement. aides say that could mean a matter of weeks. returning to the white house from overseas, the president called justice stevens at his home in florida, then gave reporters a kind of job description for the person he will pick to replace him. >> an independent mind, a record of excellence and integrity, a fierce dedication to the rule of law and a keen understanding of how the law affects the daily lives of the american people.

>> reporter: senior officials say the president is also looking for a strong leader on the court to provide a counterbalance to its charismatic conservatives. >> judge sonia sotomayor of the great state of new york. >> reporter: in the course of last year's nomination process, the president personally interviewed several people still on the short list now alena kagan who is now solicitor general, federal apeerts court judge diane pamela wood from chicago. homeland security secretary janet napolitano, one of the president's cabinet favorites. the president is also looking at federal judge merrick garland. in utah today republican senator orrin hatch urged the president to pick a moderate. >> and if he will, he will go down in history as a better president. if there doesn't, there will be a whale of a fight.

>> reporter: confirmation hearings have been decisive and may be again this time on the heels of a bitter health care debate and in an election year. >> just because you have a democratic president replacing a more liberal justice doesn't mean that the process won't be contentious. people on both ends of the spectrum will be pushing the president in the direction they favor. >> reporter: senior aide as say the president takes a hands-on approach as a constitutional lawyer himself reading articles, cases and briefs, not necessarily relying on summary and memos provided by aides. this is one of those choices that can be the lasting legacy of a presidency, brian. >> savannah, we are already hearing expressions "the whale of a fight" that could be waiting in the weeds here. does that argue against a president choosing a politician from another walk of life because that person would bring a paper trail and bigger fight in congress? >> reporter: that's certainly one consideration. on the flip side of that, the president has long said

privately he would love to have somebody who kind of had that real world experience, down in the trenches. sandra day o'connor had been a state legislature in the appeals court. whether it proves to be too much of a confirmation fight, we'll have to say. >> savannah guthrie from the white house, thanks, as always. another retirement announced today. democratic congressman bart stupak of michigan. he rallied fellow anti-abortion democrats, you'll recall, to support president obama's health care bill, delivering key support in the final hours of that debate. anti-abortion groups abandoned him. he became a target of the tea party movement. stupak said today he was not being run out by the tea partyers. democrats conceded tonight when will have a tough time holding on to that seat in november. the news from west virginia is grim tonight. there is a very slim chance any of those coal miners survived that explosion.

the chance of finding anyone alive at this point decreases by the hour, and certainly by the day. our team remains on duty in naoma, west virginia. we begin with nbc's tom costello. tom, good evening. >> reporter: brian, we are hoping to hear back soon whether rescuers have made to it that second emergency refuge chamber where they are hoping that those miners may be holed up. you may remember there was a plan to drop a camera down into the mine to check the refuge chamber. that plan failed because the drill hit a solid beam. this is now the second rescue attempt today. earlier today, rescuer ers tur back by heavy smoke. well let's paraphrase where we

are on this story. we have a technical glitch with our tape. bottom line is rescuers first made it into the mine early this morning. however, they made it almost, within about 1,000 feet of the second rescue chamber. it was clouded in smoke, poisonous toxic smoke. they then put nitrogen into the mine. the nitrogen would rob the fire of oxygen. they now believe thought was safe enough to go back into the mine. rescuers went back in at about 2:30 this afternoon and they immediately went to the second refuge chamber to look for those men. that's what we are waiting word on right now. there was a first refuge chamber. they checked that already and determined nobody was there. >> all hopes riding on the hope they made it to one of those enclosures, with apologies for our technical difficulties. tom costello from the scene in

west virginia tonight. thanks. the first funerals were held today for some of the men lost in this disaster. ron mott there with that part of this story. ron, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening to you. they began saying their final good-byes to a group of men who left their indellible mark on these hills in life and now in death. ♪ we'll see you on the other side ♪ >> reporter: today, the first of many funerals scheduled through the weekend for the men whose bodies have been discovered so far. benny willingham, weeks from a planned retirement when he died, doing what he loved said his daughter michelle. >> he loved the mines. besides his family and god this was his life. >> reporter: carl loved the mine, too, though his family said he had grown worried about how safe it was.

stephen harrah was out of the mine when it exploded. robert clark gave his life to god three months ago, says his pastor, and again monday afternoon. jason atkins was only 25. two of those carrying the proud title husband. jerry lynch, substitute teacher and coach. deward scott, unforgettable once you met him, boasts his life of nearly as long. >> he loved the mines. he loved what he done and all the men he worked with. >> reporter: tom davis lost a son, brother and nephew whose last letter to his wife was read to the miners by the president today. >> "i love you. take care of my baby. tell her her daddy loves her. she is beautiful and funny. just take care of my baby girl." >> reporter: they were coal miners, all, fathers, sons, husbands, men married to the mountain and the living that cost them their lives. while the losses are

considerable and obviously painful for so many, so many around here depend on coal mining for their very survival and the locals know that won't change any time soon. >> ron mott at the scene for us tonight after this sad week of coverage. ron, thank you very much for that. when our broadcast continues on a friday evening, what would make an adoptive parent send a child back halfway around the world alone on an airplane? and making a difference. geico says 15 minutes could save you money. but it takes less than 15 seconds to tell you this.

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. we are back now with a story that causes a good deal of outrage. it starts with a woman here in america who decided to send her

7-year-old adoptive son back where he came from in russia. he was all by himself with a note basically saying she's had enough. now what this one woman has done could end up affecting other americans who want to adopt russian children. nbc's ron allen has the story. >> reporter: artyom savelyev just 7 appeared bewildered. he had been put on a flight alone by a woman from tennessee who adopted him, with a note saying he was violent, mentally unstable and she did not want him anymore. his return touched off anger and outrage in russia. "his eyes fill with tear wes his adoptive mother is called by name. he says she often pulled him by hair. his mother was torry hansen. she allegedly paid a russian tour operator $200 to meet the boy at the airport.

hansen adopted artyom last september. his home after being taken away from an unfit alcoholic mother. the orphanage director remembers how happy new-mom hansen and artyom had seen. hansen says the orphanage lied to her. employees were definitely aware of the major problems the child had. hansen's mother told the associated press the boy had become threatening, "he drew a picture of our house burning down, and he'll 2 tell anybody that he's going to burn down our house with us in it." late today, the hansen's newly-hired attorney had this to say. >> we are hopeful after our investigation, the family will have a reasonable explanation of what occurred. >> reporter: international adoption advocates call this child abuse. >> you're worried about this child, what is this kid feeling, thinking and doing? it's indescribable.

>> reporter: today russia's foreign minister called for a halt to all adoptions in the u.s. saying it was the last straw. "the way he was treated is beyond the bounds of good and evil," he says. cases like this are rare. perhaps only a handful ever reported. there already was anger because as many as 13 children adopted from russia have died at the hands of their american parents during the past ten years. now, the u.s. state department and authorities in tennessee all want to question hansen about her adopted son, now abandoned along with the promise of a new life. ron allen, nbc news, new york. on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average briefly shot through the 11,000 mark, closing just below at 10,997. it's the first time the blue chips have touched that level since september of '08. when we come back, coming soon to a tv near you. [ male announcer ] of all the things being said about our cars... the most important is what comes from you.

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ortho weed b gon max. defend what's yours. we are back and it's time now for our friday night "making a difference" report. with all the economic struggles this country has been going through, the people who have the very least can easily end up being completely forgotten. but one woman in the midwest makes it her business to make sure the people in her community who have next to nothing at least have something to eat. she's finding her kindness repaid in a lot of unexpected ways. her story from nbc's kevin tibbles. >> reporter: 4:30 in the morning

and marcia merrick's kitchen is already busy. a one-woman peanut butter and jelly assembly line. 400 sack lunches later, she's out the door. for more than 40 years, marcia's headed onto sections of kansas city, missouri, where predawn shadows mask the faces of homelessness. >> how can i say those people aren't important? that's somebody's brother, that's somebody's son. >> reporter: here some 13,000 people fend for themselves on the streets, even finding a decent meal is a challenge. until marcia appears. they call her the mother of the streets. each lunch decorated with a message of hope. many places are intimidating. >> gosh, it's good to see you. >> reporter: oscar lives under an overpass. >> she's a good lady. she's got a good heart. >> reporter: theresa of no fixed address looks to marcia every day. >> makes my life better to know there's a friend and a friendly smile coming up to you and with

food. >> she's always there for anybody. it doesn't make a difference who it is. >> reporter: marcia's chosen this work because of her own difficult childhood when she often went hungry. so today, she provides sandwiches with a heaping spoonful of heart. >> if the inside of them feels like they are worthy of being cared for and being loved, i will have done my job. >> reporter: and word has spread. often when she returns home, complete strangers have left donations. today, it's two bags of clothing. >> there are no holes, there's no stains. >> reporter: and an envelope. >> wow. they're tickets to the ballgame. i mean a lot of tickets to the ballgame. wow. >> reporter: a dozen tickets to see the kansas city royals. the mother of the streets will soon be taking her friends on an outing. kevin tibbles, nbc news, chicago. that's why we call it "making a difference." that's our broadcast for this friday night and for this week.

thank you for being with us. lester holt will be here with you this weekend. i'm brian williams. we hope to see you right back here on monday night. in the meantime, have a good weekend. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com